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Comet Lulin - February 2009
Comet Lulin
was discovered by Taiwanese amateur astronomer
Quanzhi Ye in July of 2007. The official designation of the
comet is C/2007 N3 (Lulin).
Mr. Ye made the discovery while examining images taken by
one of the telescopes at the Lulin Observatory in Taiwan.
As comets go, Comet Lulin is not too different from most of
them. Like most comets, it is on a highly elongated orbit
that carries it into the inner solar system where it’s
warmed by the energy of the Sun. The ices that make up the
comet sublimate and dust is liberated as well. Recent
images of the comet show the comet is a greenish ball with
two distinct tails, one pointed away from the Sun and a
anti-tail pointed toward the Sun. This image is too high
powered to show the tails and just shows the head of the
comet. Also, light pollution and the low altitude of the
comet at the time of the imaging would make it very
difficult to record anyway.
One of the “buzzes” about Comet Lulin is that it is a comet
on its first and possibly its only visit to the inner solar
system. The shape of its orbit is currently calculated to
be nearly parabolic. An orbit of this shape can mean 1)
there are not enough observations of the comet to determine
an accurate elliptical orbit or 2) the comet is possibly
beyond the gravitational realm of the solar system--that is,
it is an extra-solar system object. |
